no icons/ no profile? (XP Home sp2)

I have a laptop running XP home. I need a password to access.

Worked fine - until recently.

Now I enter the user name and password, and the logon proceeds. I can hear the sound of windows opening. But I get just a blue screen. No icons. No task bar, nothing. No response from keyboard except I can alt+ctrl+delete, and it tells me there is nothing running.

I tried starting in Safe Mode and using the hidden admin account. Same story.

When I first started the laptop there was a message that something in the registry had been repaired, but I didnt take enough notice of the message, sorry.

Re: no icons/ no profile? (XP Home sp2)

By nothing running do you mean no applications running? What processes are active? If you go to File | New task you should be able to type in explorer.exe. If explorer.exe starts you should get a desktop. Have you changed any hardware or software just before the problem started? If so, you might try uninstalling it. You could also try a system restore to a point where you are fairly sure the system was working.

Re: no icons/ no profile? (XP Home sp2)

By nothing running, I mean there are no applications running. There are the usual services, and nothing looks out of place.

I cannot "go to File | New task you should be able to type in explorer.exe" because I have no Start button, no task bar, no icons. I do not have a desktop. I cannot get to a System Restore because I have no GUI. My blue screen is not that of death, just one that is that 'delightful' Windows blue.

I have seen this before in a Win2k machine on a domain, where the profile was corrupted. I was able to log in as administrator, delete the profile and start again.

But in this case, there is only a single user, and the same problem exists for the hidden admin profile.

Re: no icons/ no profile? (XP Home sp2)

Some parts of your Registry are badly corrupted. First, try to run Windows Setup (from Windows installation CD) from "inside" Windows ( i.e. when your computer booted up and you logged on). This way it is possible to repair your installation without re-installing all your programs. If it is impossible, boot from Installation CD, choose "Install Windows" (not "Repair") on the first prompt, and then when Setup detects your previous installation, choose "Repair". This procedure can bring mixed results - you may or may not re-install all other programs after re-installing Windows.
But if you are prepared to re-install your programs, the best way is to destroy all partitions on your hard drive, create new ones, install Windows, install Office etc, etc, etc...